Confessions of a failed allotmenteer

I just saw the post Do people blog anymore and had a dig around in my wordpress admin. I found a one page blog I wrote 9 years ago about my disastrous attempt to run an allotment. Wow - there are some great lessons for my future self, whose just read it.

If you want a laugh, here it is - Plot32b - there’s a fair amount of dry British humour. I might include it my new permaculture, old school blog.


I don’t miss bindweed

When I saw your blog posts about being a "failed" allotmenteer, it brought up a whole bunch of thoughts I've been having lately regarding "failure."  Another gift of learning about Permaculture has been that it has inspired me to totally redefine failure in my life.

So along the lines of "the problem is the solution," then perhaps "the failure is the success." You got several yields from that effort and experience. You were out in nature, photographing and writing about it, which I hope was enjoyable! And you point out how much you have learned now from reading what you wrote then. I'm sure you learned much that you didn't share online. Also during that time you gave wildlife a space to thrive. You increased biomass and biodiversity there. You gave all of us on the internet information and perspective!

Although these yields can't be measured, they exist! The goodness of something good spreads out in ways we might not ever see or know.  You may have had different goals for your project, but good things happened because of your actions. So can it really be called a failure?

What a nice an honest old blog post Edward! Thank you.

fwiw, one rule I've established in my head since I've started on the "growies" path, regarding my personal time: Biology comes first. So whatever is on my plate, if it's biological, I need to tend to that before the non-biological things, because, well, biological things live and die, thrive and fade away -- their condition really depends on me and my attitude towards them. No wrong-making for anyone that doesn't want to have houseplants, pets, a vegetable garden or orchard, farm animals, or children!! It's just that a live, biological being, well, there it is, and it needs what it needs, NOW, and it wants what it wants. You get to choose whether and how to deal with that, and your results, always passed through an exciting randomness of the universe filter, are what they are, but generally you can see that the active love you put into it, indirectly and in the long term, is generally reflected in thriving, what you could think of as love back. No single individual needs to play that game, but it can be very rich and fulfilling if you get into it.

On the down-and-dirty subject of bindweed, I can only sympathize. One strategy I've used to some success is shading out by laying down big sheets of cardboard from the local box-making plant, and or worthless sheep's wool (of a scratchy variety) from the local farmers, two really cheap inputs I have locally to totally shade it out. 5x a year visiting is not enough, but when it creeps in from the edges of whatever I've put down to suppress it, I find that visiting every 2 weeks generally averts disaster. Tear up the vines that creep in from the edges and keep your plants from being mobbed. It takes many, many years of doing this to weaken the damn underground roots to the point it dies... I find for me that it's good practice in getting myself out of the consumer-culture-induced "put in a little effort and see an instant result" mindset that our "modern" society instills in us, and back into the rhythms of how the real, physical, biological world actually works. It feels really real and good on some level.

This ground cover also helps with droughts, as well as mulching thickly with straw, cardboard, sheep's wool, pine needles or whatever I have around. And of course, plants with huge leaves like your butternut squash are classics to shade out weeds and keep the ground protected and moist.

Anyway, I'm not sure what you're up to now in New Jersey, but I hope you're liking it! I think there must be some green space left in your heart if you keep coming back here to permies. I think we can all choose to take care of the biosphere in our own way and in ways that give something back to us (we are biological creatures too, with our likes and dislikes, and ways we thrive) as well as in some small way taking care of the big kahuna of "all of it."

I confess, I feel better now about my perceived lack of progress here in western New Mexico USA, and my ongoing and fruitless battles to have it my way.  

I think of bindweed as a pretty flower, but then it's hardly invasive here because it's way too dry.  On the other hand, I've got other wild volunteers that I have perpetual war with.  This past summer I just gave up.  Some of the plants grew to nearly six feet and the best I could do is clear paths through it.  Whatever it is (and I keep forgetting when I rediscover what it's called), it's the first rich green growing plant of spring, a carpet of vivid green, and by then I'm so starved for green things that I'm reluctant to attack.  

But it gets taller -- much, much taller -- and produces teensy little yellow flowers, and then creates a gazillion teensy little seeds.  It ends up a dried brown prickly jungle (see photo) that every fall I vow will not recur the coming year (as it has for so many years in spite of my vows) but on the other hand, I've got lots of over-wintering birds that are so very happy.

Lif Strand wrote:  It ends up a dried brown prickly jungle (see photo) that every fall I vow will not recur the coming year (as it has for so many years in spite of my vows) but on the other hand, I've got lots of over-wintering birds that are so very happy.

Well, that's no so bad, is it? Happy overwintering birds are great and a joy to watch (mainly because it's not cherry season and they're not eating all your cherries!). If anyone asks, you can say you're "rewilding" your garden for the benefit of the biosphere in general. If the ghost of Bill Mollison visits you, you can tell him you're giving it over to Zone 5 now, where you can just observe and learn from nature.

Maybe it's a question of reducing your expectations on yourself to what you're actually going to do -- and what really inspires you. I mean, what's the point of worrying about stuff you're not actually going to do? I tend to get overwhelmed with big projects, so from others I gradually have learned what I call the "little corner" method, which I apply to lots of things. It's a great strategy when you're moving into a new house with all the chaos on moving day. I just choose a little corner to have just the way I want it, and forget about the rest for now. And gradually expand from there, putting things the way I want them. I lay off the expansion if I start to get overwhelmed and focus on just maintaining the nice bit I have. If you have just a little corner of the yard that does the garden basics for you, looks nice and keeps you entertained, you can leave the rest to the birds and be very satisfied, you've done a favor to yourself and them. Just a thought.

Dave de Basque wrote:... I gradually have learned what I call the "little corner" method, which I apply to lots of things. It's a great strategy when you're moving into a new house with all the chaos on moving day. I just choose a little corner to have just the way I want it, and forget about the rest for now. And gradually expand from there, putting things the way I want them. I lay off the expansion if I start to get overwhelmed and focus on just maintaining the nice bit I have. If you have just a little corner of the yard that does the garden basics for you, looks nice and keeps you entertained, you can leave the rest to the birds and be very satisfied, you've done a favor to yourself and them. Just a thought.

What a lovely idea!  I plan to implement it right away -- inside and out!  Thank you!

I have perennial weeds on ten acres & one acre is large when you are talking about an allotment garden, so when I stop working the plot the weeds took it over.
I was sick for about 18 months, Afib. I could have worked the garden, but this was knew to me, I stayed home until I was sure, I would not make thing worse by gardening.
The wild garlic, Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon), wild dew berry, dog funnel, Solanum carolinense, the Carolina horsenettle, took the place.
I also have the wild passion fruit, we call it may pop, but it is a reseeding annual, that is not hard to control.
These plants took my garden & raised beds & I am fighting to regain control, without using "Round up", because it will do more damage than good & it will not kill all these perennial weeds.
I found Soil solarization works well & after growing season is over you can cover the soil to keep seeds from growing until you plant again.
The cover is worth it's weight in gold, wish I had use it last year or two.
https://www.billboardvinyls.com/collections/reused-tarps

Edward thank you for the laugh! It brought me so much joy that I've read it a couple times now. Somehow, even though our plots are probably thousands of miles apart, our experience is almost identical. I 100% agree that Bindweed is Forever and I also have a loud nosy woman who comes over to tell me what I should be doing. Sometimes I see her on the other side of the community garden, three acres away, and I hide in my little greenhouse to avoid her. Other times she brings her extra raspberries over while she tells me what to do, and so all is forgiven.

All that being said this is my last season in the community garden here and I'll honestly miss both the people and the plots. As full of weeds and annoying as they are. You've inspired me to write about it so I can look back on this time in the future.